News: September 2020

The September 2020 edition of the ESRC Wales DTP newsletter

Publication date: 30 September 2020

Despite high hopes, carbon emissions from Amazonian forest recovery are dwarfed by deforestation

Regrowing forests are absorbing just a small proportion of the carbon dioxide released from widespread deforestation in the Amazon, according to new evidence.

Publication date: 29 September 2020

Insect used as scientific ‘model’ has standardised names for body part names added

Surprisingly for a model organism which has been used in research that has led to the award of six Nobel Prizes for physiology and medicine, the humble or not so humble fruit fly, does not have a complete anatomical naming system.

The fruit fly has been widely used as a model organism to study genetics, neuroscience, physiology, development and immunity since the first decade of the 20th Century (1910) because of its relatively simple genetics and a rapid life cycle.

Publication date: 15 September 2020

Crab-shells could provide a new virucide for PPE

A material derived from waste crab-shells is being tested for use as a virucide for use on PPE and other medical devices.

North Wales-based company Pennotec (Pennog Limited) are working with experts at Bangor University to develop a unique coating which has long-lasting virus-destroying properties.

Publication date: 7 September 2020

New research reveals anaerobic digestion could undermine UK net-zero emissions

Based on research by Bangor University, Feedback’s ‘Bad Energy’ report reveals that, contrary to industry claims, AD has a limited role to play in a sustainable future. While it compares favourably to the most environmentally damaging methods of energy generation and waste disposal, there is a raft of alternatives to AD that can better mitigate the UK’s carbon emissions, while also making more food available.

Publication date: 7 September 2020

This ancient Chinese anatomical atlas changes what we know about acupuncture and medical history

The accepted history of anatomy says that it was the ancient Greeks who mapped the human body for the first time. Galen, the “Father of Anatomy”, worked on animals, and wrote anatomy textbooks that lasted for the next 1,500 years. Modern anatomy started in the Renaissance with Andreas Vesalius, who challenged what had been handed down from Galen. He worked from human beings, and wrote the seminal “On the Fabric of the Human Body”.

This article Vivien Shaw, Lecturer in Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences and Isabelle Catherine Winder, Lecturer in Zoology, School of Natural Sciences is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Publication date: 3 September 2020

Ancient Chinese text revealed to be an anatomical atlas of the human body

The standard history of anatomy traces its roots back to classical Greece, but a new reading of a recently discovered Chinese text argues that the Chinese were also among the earliest anatomists.

Writing in The Anatomical Record, Vivien Shaw and Isabelle Winder of Bangor University, UK and Rui Diogo of Howard University, USA, interpret the Mawangdui medical manuscripts found in a Chinese tomb in the early 1970s, as the earliest surviving anatomical description of the human body.

Publication date: 2 September 2020

Kidney Disease and pregnancy- what do women need for their support?

“ I didn’t know what I didn’t know, because no one asked me”

Women may have many things to think about before becoming pregnant, as well as questions which need answering while they are pregnant.

There are around five thousand women of childbearing age in Wales who have a condition that affects their kidneys. They may have additional questions about the impact of pregnancy on their kidney disease and how their kidney disease might affect their pregnancy.

Publication date: 2 September 2020